EDITORIAL: Drone strikes a secret, unchecked abuse of military power

The United States' unmanned drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia have killed hundreds, if not thousands, of militants.

They have also killed hundreds, perhaps thousands, of civilians.

The numbers are fuzzy. According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, there have been a minimum of 2,966 deaths by drone strikes in the three countries, and at least 494 of those were civilians.

But according to the New York Times, the Obama administration's definition of militants "in effect counts all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants ... unless there is explicit intelligence posthumously proving them innocent."

It's not hard to imagine there has been a much higher loss of innocent life than has been reported.

On the other hand, an unknowable number of American military personnel have not had to risk their lives flying air strikes or searching for combatants in hostile territory.

It is an unfortunate fact of war that civilians will be killed. The administration says it targets its strikes to reduce the chance of civilian casualties.

The problem is, we are not at war with Pakistan, Somalia or Yemen. Flying drones over Iraq or Afghanistan, when we were actively at war with those countries, is defensible. Firing rockets into a house in Pakistan because militants are meeting there is not, whether the rocket comes from a drone or an Air Force jet.

Richard Nixon's secret bombing of Cambodia during the Vietnam War was roundly condemned. While the drone program has been publicly acknowledged since January 2012, there is still a large element of secrecy. That concerns even Adm. Dennis C. Blair, former director of national intelligence under Obama.

"The United States is a democracy, and people need to know how we use our military force, and that we use it in ways that the U.S. can be proud of," Blair said, according to the International Business Times.

The war against terror is one without borders, but the United States is a nation of law. We should not be killing citizens of countries who are supposed to be our allies.